Access to Bank Credit and SME Financing. (Case of Kosovo) Paper Title

Abstract

This study explored the impact of firm and entrepreneurship characteristics such as age, size, manager’s education, business plan, the form of business and gender, on influencing SMEs' access to funding. There are different researchers through their study, evidence that some SMEs may still face difficulties in accessing bank finance. This paper reports an in-depth study into demand issues relating to access to bank finance by Kosovo SMEs and whether there is still a market failure. This paper discusses the ability of SMEs to access debt finance from the commercial banks in Kosovo obtained through questionnaires with 500 SMEs , it reports findings that SMEs had reported having difficulty raising finance and secondary data obtained from magazines, books, and the Internet to review literature. The results show that there is a mutual correlation between firms' ages, business plans, and size and access to credit in Kosovo banks. These characteristics of firms are very important and influential factors in the banks' decision to approve loans required by SMEs. This paper provides some important conclusions for the Kosovo financial system and policymakers to implement SME support and policies.